Eritrean Official asks EU Diplomat why Sanction Russia but Not Ethiopia?

Yemane G. Meskel (third from the left) on a working visit to UAE

Updated: 2 May 2014

Eritrean Official asks EU Diplomat why Sanction Russia but Not Ethiopia?

While taken part on a diplomatic event in Asmara, Yemane G. Meskel, senior Eritrean government official, schools a seasoned Western Ambassador on EU's hypocrisy of sanctioning Russia for occupying Ukrainian territory while looking the other way with Ethiopia's illegal occupation of Eritrean territory. Yemane said:

"On the fringes of a diplomatic event here, a seasoned Western Ambassador waxed eloquently on the principles underpinning the raft of sanctions that the EU has imposed on Russia due to developments in Ukraine and in spite of potential economic ramifications to Europe itself.

[I] asked him how he reconciles this "principled position" with their previous stance on Ethiopia's occupation of sovereign Eritrean lands. Lest we forget, the EU's arguments revolved around the "impracticality of sanctions" or other mundane excuses to let Ethiopia off the hook. This was, of course, long before somebody in the US State Department thought of "turning the tables" by imposing sanctions on Eritrea.

The Ambassador first tried to wiggle out of this obvious legal conundrum but then stated, with a straight face, "the world is complex". This was euphemism for double standards; an admission that solemn principles have no universal applicability and are subordinated to interests."

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